z

Young Writers Society


16+ Violence

Coping up... Together. Chapter 4: Rattoo, the blood sucking bat.

by Eros


Warning: This work has been rated 16+ for violence.

Chapter 4: Rattoo, the blood sucking bat.

Cool breezes were taking with it, the leaves along with dust of the garden of Michiko's old, mediocre, desolate house. 

"How does she manage to live in such a desolate house, with no friends and no neighbours?" Tamao wondered, as he opened the gate that creaked in a way that made him a bit afraid.

Tamao walked through the garden, quivering with cold breeze that was brushing against his cheeks. He was wrapped in a long brown coat and a white muffler that clinged to his neck because of the air acting in opposition.

Michiko had just finished making cookies  and was swinging on the swing, when she saw Tamao walking through the garden. She got up from the swing and welcomed him into her house. It was clean from inside, though it looked filthy and dirt covered from outside.

Tamao was about to sit on the coach, when Michiko interrupted,

"It is cold here, go and sit comfortably on the bed in the bedroom inside and I will bring the cookies."

"Yeah, sure."

Tamao went inside the bedroom, and looked around thinking how neat and tidily was everything kept at its place. Michiko entered with the plate of cookies in her hands. She went near him and sat face to face with him, on the bed, with the plate in between them. Tamao took a cookie and looked at her. 

Michiko was sitting. Still. Motionless.

"Michiko?"

She didn't move even an inch.

"Michiko" Tamao shook her gently.

Michiko shook her head and came back to the reality. 

Tamao pushed the plate aside and rested his hands over her shoulders.

"Tell me, Michiko what is the matter? I have been observing your daily struggle... Do you have any problems with your feelings?"

Michiko shook her head and looked down, trying to avoid eye contact with Tamao.

Tamao lifted her face up gently, by placing his fingers beneath her chin. Michiko's eyes directly met Tamao's. Her eyes started to fill with tears.

"Tamao, I don't know what is happening to me. I feel there's chemical turmoil going on my head. I feel I have lost my control over feelings."

"Since when has it been happening?"

"About ... five months."

"Don't worry, Michiko. Everything will get ok. What else do you feel?"

"Rattoo doesn't let me sleep."

"Who is Rattoo?" 

"Rattoo, the blood sucking bat."

Tamao arched his eyebrows in doubt and said,

"Such things can never exist in our country, Michie. The climate here is not suitable for such creatures."

"No, Tamao, Rattoo will come today also." Michiko's breathing started to increase and she became restless.

"Ok, ok. Relax, Michie." Tamao held her hands. Suddenly his eyes caught a glimpse of a scar on her fair hand. 

"What is this scar, Michie?"

"Rattoo. Did it..." Michiko began to sob.

Tamao was left thinking how can a blood sucking bat reside in their country and out of curiosity he decided to stay with her that night. He took permission from his parents and told Michiko that he would stay with her that night.

Michiko cooked dinner for both of them and the whole time, Tamao was trying hard to change her mood and make her come back from depression. Michiko was facing extreme mood swings that night. Till the sun set she was gloomy. After the sun set there was a drastic change in her mood. 

Just after she took the dried clothes to keep the cupboard and before she could even open the cupboard she felt a strong throbbing in her head. 

She screamed and Tamao rushed towards her. She was standing there in front of the cupboard, holding her head. The clothes were all scattered on the floor. Tamao held her in his arms and placed her on the bed. Her hair was all messed up, with thick strands of hair protruding out of the messy bun.

She winced in pain and said sobbing and breathing heavily, 

"Rattoo will kill me, Tamao!"

"Where is Rattoo?"

"Look, he is just behind you!! He will kill you too!"

Tamao turned around. There was nothing. Before he could even turn back to Michiko, she had finished making a cut on her leg with a blade. It was bleeding heavily. 

Tamao almost screamed on watching the blood. Michiko started to whine, crying out, 

"Rattoo is drinking my blood! Rattoo is drinking my blood!" while the blade was still gripped between her own fingers.


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Mon Nov 12, 2018 1:21 am
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Casanova wrote a review...



Heya, Eros. Casanova here for another review.

So what I've grasped so far in this chapter is that she thinks there's a blood sucking bat making her cut herself and stuff, and she's not completely there. Okay, so I got that. One thing you mentioned, however, is that Tamao is in college(first chapter you mentioned this) and yet here he has to get permission from his parents to go spend the night with her? That doesn't make much sense, neither does the lunch eating and stuff all together, so I think I might have read too much into the college comment. Anyway, onward.

You're strictly focusing on Michiko being sorta off the rails, here, and have since chapter two. I would enjoy seeing her be more than that, give more into her day to day life instead of just freaking out. Instead of just being angry and depressed, I would love to see something more.

And Tamao doesn't seem to react much to any of this- which I can see to an extent, but not to this extent. He doesn't even flinch at any of this, and yet I figure someone who has depraved himself of human connections would at least be a little freaked out.

Anyway i think that's all I have to say on this one and I hope it helped.

Keep on doing what you're doing.

Sincerely, Casanova




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Sun Aug 26, 2018 7:32 am
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TheWeirdoFromBeyond wrote a review...



This is Weirdo, here for a review. Please know that nothing in this review is meant to offend you or your story. This is just my opinion, you and other readers and reviewers could disagree. That being said, let us get into this review.

Grammar/Typos/Word check/Spell check/Sentence formation

Tamao walked through the garden, quivering with cold breeze that was brushing against his cheeks. He was wrapped in a long brown coat and a white muffler that clinged to his neck because of the air acting in opposition.

*a col
*clung

"Tell me, Michiko what is the matter? I have been observing your daily struggle... Do you have any problems with your feelings?"

*Michiko, what

"Rattoo. Did it..." Michiko began to sob.

*"Rattoo," she paused for a second, unsure what to say, and then continued, "Rattoo did it," she said, and started sobbing.

"Rattoo, the blood sucking bat."


Tamao was left thinking how can a blood sucking bat reside in their country and out of curiosity he decided to stay with her that night. He took permission from his parents and told Michiko that he would stay with her that night.

*blood-sucking

Till the sun set she was gloomy. After the sun set there was a drastic change in her mood.

*sunset

Okay, now done with this, let's talk about the plot.

So Michiko is imagining Rattoo, right? I want to know more about what caused this mental state. Or is Rattoo a magical creature only Michiko can see? curious to know more.

Looking forward to more from you, and hope this helps.
-Weirdo




Eros says...


Okay!! So should I really continue it?!





Yes!!! With work, this could be an amazing novel :D



Eros says...


Okay!!! Thanks for the inspiration!!



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Sun Aug 12, 2018 11:41 pm
rosette wrote a review...



Hello there, Eros! :D

I have not read any previous chapters of this novel, so all I know about this story is what I've read here. And as of right now, I find it quite fascinating, to be honest! I don't know the relationship between Tamao and Michiko but it seems pretty tight. They appear to be good friends, and I like Tamao based off of how he's treating Michiko: trying to comfort her, help her see clearly, etc.

This chapter ended a bit intensely (which was awesome haha) and it leaves me wondering about Michiko's state of mind. If this blood-sucking bat was a figment of her imagination and she's wounding herself over here... that's concerning. But tbh it makes for a great story. And that's exciting. :]

One thing that made this chapter difficult to read was the grammatical and punctuation errors scattered throughout it. There were unnecessary commas (or none at all), wrong tenses, and awkwardly worded sentences. I'm also not sure why you highlighted all the dialogue in bold but that's really not necessary and would read better without it. But since I don't want to spend too long on here going over everything I'll just point you to this awesome page that could definitely help improve your works. (Though I will warn you: a person can spend far too long looking through these columns lol).

Michiko had just finished making cookies and was swinging on the swing, when she saw Tamao walking through the garden. She got up from the swing and welcomed him into her house.

Michiko shook her head and looked down, trying to avoid eye contact with Tamao.

The chapter opens with Tamao's POV and the whole remainder of it tells the story from his perspective, as well, but these two times I highlighted seem to switch to Michiko's point of view, which is rather abrupt and awkward. This chapter wasn't written in omniscient form, so the sudden switch threw me off a bit. I suggest just sticking with one person's pov. c:

"Tamao, I don't know what is happening to me. I feel there's chemical turmoil going on my head. I feel I have lost my control over feelings."

"Since when has it been happening?"

"About ... five months."

Okay, okay. So Michiko and Tamao seem pretty close, like I said earlier. For one, they're sitting together on her bed and another, he stays the night so yeah, they obviously didn't meet a day ago. But then how could Tamao possibly not know what's going on with her? Or not know how long she's been struggling like this? He did say he's been observing her daily struggle (pardon me, but I thought that question of his was worded very strangely. is that how it was supposed to read?) but I'm not entirely sure what that meant...

He took permission from his parents and told Michiko that he would stay with her that night.

Michiko cooked dinner for both of them and the whole time, Tamao was trying hard to change her mood and make her come back from depression. Michiko was facing extreme mood swings that night. Till the sun set she was gloomy. After the sun set there was a drastic change in her mood.

Another thing I noticed is that you like to sum things up a lot. You tell it, rather than show it. Which isn't always a bad thing. But here, for example, it'd be much more effective to show us how everything played out rather than state it. I'd kind of like to know how Michiko reacted when Tamao said he would stay with her. I'd like to know how Tamao tried to change her mood (what'd he do??) and how Michiko's mood changed. It's important to the story and how we view their characters. These things help us come to know them better.

I gotta run now, so I shall wrap this up.
Keep it up, Eros! Like I said: great story. But the grammatical errors do cause a person to stumble, and I'd love more showing and less telling.
Have a great one!

~rosette <3





Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
— Martin Luther King Jr.